Marubeni Corp., Japan's second-largest scrap steel trader, said its exports to China have quadrupled in the past two months as demand in China has improved in response to a planned government stimulus.
Monthly scrap exports in December and January were about 200,000 metric tons, up from the 50,000 tons typical of most months, said Kazuo Baba, a general manager at Marubeni's iron and steel materials trading unit, Marubeni Tetsugen Co.
China, the world's largest steel consumer, plans to spend 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) to support its sagging economy by starting construction projects, including bridges and airports, and increasing metal consumption.
"It appears that China's stimulus measures are gradually resuscitating steel demand," said Baba in an interview Wednesday in Tokyo. About 60 percent of the scrap was bought by steelmakers and the rest by trading houses, including Fengli Group Co., he said.
Japanese scrap export prices under January contracts rose 28 percent from a month earlier to ¥23,312 per ton, Kanto Tetsugen, the Tokyo-area scrap dealers' cooperative, said on 14 Jan, though this is still some way off a peak of more than ¥70,000 reached last July.
Source: Japan Times
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